Warren Hatter
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frenchrocksampler.bsky.social
Warren Hatter
@frenchrocksampler.bsky.social
Brighton, East Sussex.
I write about the French equivalent of Krautrock.
25 @ResonanceFM shows: bit.ly/FRSradio
Concrete Science Fiction Riot forthcoming on Strange Attractor
Well this looks fascinating www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...
August 3, 2025 at 12:11 PM
I've been in touch with Bernard Szajner (Zed), who has confirmed that this beautiful poster was designed by Moebius (yes, THE Moebius) for Bernard's company Laser Graphics in 1977, around the time they were doing light shows at the Planetarium at the Palais De La Découverte in Paris.
May 19, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Thank you. I had to hunt Ambient Owl Core briefly on Tidal, though, where you divide into three Kayla Painters
February 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM
What have I counted as early Zeuhl, from the groups immediately influenced by Magma at their 1973-75 peak? I’m including Potemkine and Xalph, their style more avant and choral than Univeria Zekt, Zao and Speed Limit, for whom the ‘fusion’ descriptor seems sufficient. It’s a mug’s game though :-)
February 18, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Another album bubbling under my Zeuhl Top Ten is Stoyz Vi Dozeveloy by Honeyelk (1979). Two side-long suites, side 2 in particular a wide range of textures, tempos and near-silences youtu.be/aHHJT1STzdU From Toulon in the South of France.
February 17, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Links:
25 radio shows bit.ly/FRSradio
Manifesto in tQ tquiet.us/CSFR
On magma for Shindig! bit.ly/MagmaShindig
Richard Pinhas Bakers Dozen tquiet.us/RP13
Zeuhl top ten: bit.ly/ZeuhlTop10
Later, Concrete Science Fiction Riot, forthcoming on
@strangeattractor.bsky.social
February 14, 2025 at 3:45 PM
They’d planned to keep the band going alongside Magma, but it didn’t work out. The closest Weidorje had to a second album is Bernard Paganotti’s kind-of solo effort Paga (1985), which has some tracks from Weidorje’s live set and second album demos.
February 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
The SF sleeve was the work of the group's Basque vocalist Klaus Blasquiz, who also made and taught comic art. His drawing had also graced the cover of Magma's Üdü Ẁüdü
February 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Quatre Visions was initially a short-run cassette put out by American fanzine and label Eurock, their second release but recorded before first album Ardeur.
February 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Köhntarkösz was Magma’s most recent album when Alejandro Jodorowsky was planning his big budget adaptation of Dune in the mid 1970s. You can hear why he wanted Magma to soundtrack the House of Harkonnen (while Pink Floyd would soundtrack Atreides).
February 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Attahk is less coherent than the group's great works, but it succeeds on its own terms. Blasquiz, though, saw Attahk as a bits-and-pieces album, "not really Magma any more", but he stuck with the project for another year, to complete a decade with the group.
February 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
From 1977 Richard Pinhas was making solo recordings when not working on Heldon tracks. The first solo album recorded (though second released) was Chronolyse, including 7 hypnotic tracks 'On the Theme of Bene Gesserit', after the matriarchal order from Dune. Listen: youtu.be/y2wKg5cWlBA
December 19, 2024 at 5:31 PM
Pascal Comelade is still going strong and back in the 1970s was making brilliant underground sounds. Listen to this track from his first album (Fluence by Fluence). Richard Pinhas guested on guitar on one track. Feel the repetition & hear the US minimalist influences. youtu.be/aoRDQ5yNroM
December 18, 2024 at 2:05 PM
Frenchrocksampler links:
25 Resonance FM shows bit.ly/FRSradio
Manifesto in @thequietus.com tquiet.us/CSFR
Magma article for Shindig! bit.ly/MagmaShindig
Richard Pinhas Bakers Dozen tquiet.us/RP13
I've been writing Concrete Science Fiction Riot, forthcoming on @strangeattractor.bsky.social
December 17, 2024 at 11:02 PM
One of the things that's hard for people to get their head around when they start getting into Magma is the Theusz Hamtaahk trilogy, of which there's no definitive studio recording of part 1. This is the reference version though: live in Paris 1980, from the RetrospektÏw album t.co/yakns6TC0O
December 17, 2024 at 10:13 AM
Glad to see this article is still up, on a great exhibition of posters from May '68, when students and workers almost overthrew the French state. [Narrator's voice: or did they?] fadmagazine.com/2018/04/23/2... I love the style and the straightforward messaging
November 23, 2024 at 2:30 AM
Best cover art of 2024? I can't decide between 'May' by Arianne Churchman & Benedict Drew (artwork by themselves) ... and 'Howl' by Daisy Rickman (artwork by Amelia Pemberton)
November 21, 2024 at 12:42 PM